Cyprus celebrates launch of new EU climate innovation programmes

Academics, business leaders and government officials in Cyprus celebrated the roll-out of new Climate-KIC climate innovation programmes at a high-level event in Nicosia last week.

Cyprus is one of the countries where Climate-KIC has recently introduced its uniquely integrated innovation model as part of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS).

At the event in Nicosia on 29 September – organised under the auspices of the president of Cyprus, Nikos Anastasiadis – speakers including former EU education commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and a representative of education and culture minister Costas Kadis were among the officials to welcome the European Union’s climate innovation partnership to Cyprus.

One of the programmes introduced to Cyprus is Climate-KIC’s start-up accelerator, which supports entrepreneurs to get their climate change adaptation and mitigation products and services to market, and helps identify export and collaboration opportunities in Europe and around the world.

Cyprus University of Technology

When the expansion was announced in July, Stylianos Yiatros of the Cyprus University of Technology said: “Cyprus is delighted to join the EIT Climate-KIC RIS programme and bring climate change innovation to the Eastern Mediterranean region.”

A Climate-KIC delegation visited the Cyprus University of Technology ahead of the event in Nicosia, and met with the team at CUTing Edge, an entrepreneurship community supported by the US state department, and INTENT, the university’s innovation and technology transfer office.

“Active involvement at a regional level is key to ensuring that Europe continues to lead the way in climate change development,” said Mike Cherrett, director external partnerships at Climate-KIC, “Cyprus will help us build on the success of our collaboration elsewhere in Europe, and further strengthen our network of partners.”

At a special event we celebrated the acceptance of Cy Techn.Instit.,Chrysalis Leap & Cy Energy Agency as partner of EIT's #Climate KIC RIS.

Climate-KIC expansion

Thanh-Tâm LÊ, Climate-KIC’s director for the Mediterranean region, and Cherret also met with the university’s leadership including rector Andreas Anayiotos, before discussing collaboration opportunities with the Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation.

Since 2014, Climate-KIC has piloted activities in Estonia, Portugal, Romania and Slovenia, focusing on professional education and acceleration as part of the EIT programme. In addition to Cyprus, the scheme has now widened to include regions in Serbia, Latvia, Malta, Bulgaria and a new Portuguese consortium.